


Bows before hoes

by Tr1x



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race (US) RPF
Genre: AU, Completed, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Lesbian Sex, Listen... I know the title is the stupidest thing, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Smut, THERE’S ONLY ONE BED, bed sharing, cheerleading au, trixya - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27836131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tr1x/pseuds/Tr1x
Summary: Trixie and Katya are all-star cheerleaders on a semi-famous team. What will they do when they have to share a bed the night before their most important competition?highly recommend listening to "Love It If We Made It" by The 1975 when reading!
Relationships: Trixie Mattel/Katya Zamolodchikova
Comments: 21
Kudos: 55





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!!💕 Any and all feedback is really appreciated!!! 
> 
> You don’t need to know anything about cheer to read this but basically I made a google doc for anyone who is more unfamiliar with the terminology and wanted further clarification. I also think it will be good if u know cheer tho: 
> 
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wz13LpOmuaqQr1K86hRGK2YWmH9ozn-tuyFA2qOGWl0/edit  
> It also includes what their stunt sequences look like so if you’re interested check it out!  
> my tumblr: trixiemateil so feel free to visit me there 💕💕 :)

Trixie is completely mentally checked out from school. She had trudged through the doorway of her house almost two hours ago, and ever since: any thoughts about her assignments or schoolwork have been wiped from her mind. Trixie’s headphones are plugged into her phone and she is absentmindedly winding and unwinding the cord around her pointer finger. She's laying on her stomach despite her spine starting to get sore from the position. In New York they were deep into autumn so the late afternoon sun had almost already disappeared. The last faint slivers of sunlight leak through Trixie’s blinds, onto her bed. Trixie brushes her hair out of her face, putting it back behind her ear. The honey blonde strand falls back in front of her eyes and Trixie sighs exasperatedly. A blaring alarm starts playing from her phone. Startled, Trixie rolls over again to sit on the edge of her bed. She allows her socked feet to dangle over the hard wood for a moment and turns off the alarm that reads “Don’t be late for cheer!!” Knowing she has already swiped away the first two reminders she starts getting ready.

“Shit”, Trixie mutters to herself, as she goes to gather the unpacked items strewn across her bedroom floor, chucking them into her cheer bag as efficiently as possible. She goes through her mental checklist before picking the bag up. Practice uniform? Check. Shoes? Check. Water bottle? Check. Sweatpants? Check. 

She pulls a pink hoodie over her head and throws as many loose hair elastics as she can grab in one handful into the front pocket of her cheer bag. She grabs a quick glance at herself in the hallway mirror before leaving, to ensure she didn’t look crazy. She has her honey blonde hair in a tight high ponytail that reaches just below her shoulder blades. Under the plushy oversized hoodie and sweatpants, she is wearing a black and red sports bra that hug her breasts nicely. Along with the bra, she is wearing black cheer shorts that have her team’s name embroidered along the band of the left leg. She jogs through the door frame advancing towards the bus stop. There is a light wind travelling through the New York air, but the sun is still out. The warm orange rays are a welcome comfort as they slightly lessen the harsh breezes that are abrasive to Trixie's exposed skin. She pulls her hoodie sleeves over her hands and forges on.

Trixie is exactly four minutes early when she pushes open the cold metal handle of the studio doors. A whoosh of warmer, stale, air hits her face. She proceeds through the lobby, making a beeline to the change rooms. The entire lobby is decked with various shiny trophies from past competitions. Some of the more important accolades: awards from worlds and NCA, are displayed on the right side of the front desk. Walking past these many awards, Trixie can’t help feeling a strong sense of pride, as she is reminded of her many successes. Trixie has just enough time to slip off her loungewear and to assure her uniform is sitting correctly. Once satisfied with her appearance, she steps towards the change room cubbies and shoves her bag into one of many small wooden boxes. Trixie leaves the changeroom and re-enters the lobby, where a few other cheerleaders are already hanging out. She is well acquainted with everyone on her team, but usually likes to keep to herself. She sits on the bench opposite to the gaggle of athletes, occasionally eavesdropping into their conversation when it moved to subjects that interested her more. 

Just minutes later, class time rolls around, and all the cheerleaders are called to the floor and are directed to find an open spot. At this point in the year most people had an unofficial reservation as to where they would be standing. Or was sort of like a high school classroom: where most people sat in the same spot every day. As Trixie is walking to her usual place, she is delighted to see that her closest friend, Katya, has just entered the gym (two minutes late, as she often did). The instructor reprimands her lightly, broadcasting her tardiness to the entire class. Embarrassed by this, Katya swiftly saunters to her usual spot on the floor, still tying back half of her short hair into a ponytail. She migrates to right next to Trixie. Reaching her spot, Katya apologizes profusely to their coach. The coach gives a glance of irritation, but in reality is unbothered, as most people on the team knew: Katya could get away with almost anything.  
Five girls: Katya, Trixie, Shea, Violet, and Jaiden were essentially the backbones of the entire team. Katya, being the best flyer, was indisputably crucial to the team’s success, paired with Trixie: the strongest base they were essential for routines. Along with their stunting skills, both of the girls had proven themselves worthy with their exemplary tumbling. As for the rest: Shea and Violet showed incredible flexibility and charisma as flyers, while Jaiden demonstrated such strength as a base, that she could support multi-base stunts all on her own. These five girls were all pretty close, but they all also had other close friends on the rest of the team. The five of them were not an exclusive group, in fact: everyone on the team was close with at least one of them. They were essential not just for their skill, but their interconnection. 

They team commences practice with a high intensity workout, lasting around twenty minutes. Though this workout was standard for the girls, it still continues to leave the athletes exhausted. This fatigue is enough to make their bodies beg for rest. By the time they are given their minute-break many are lying on the carpet flooring of the gymnasium, too tired to sit up.  
Once the team is recovered, the cheerleaders get a few minutes to stretch themselves, and afterwards the bases are instructed to stretch their flyers a bit further. Trixie looks over her shoulder to Katya and smiles, already aware of the pain she is about to put her through. Katya groans half sarcastically, speed walking towards Trixie so that they can get stretching over and done with. They start with a needle stretch. The girls stand chest to chest, and Katya wraps her arms around Trixies middle. Katya lifts her leg towards the back of her head with the assistance of Trixie. Once the position is stable, Katya arches her back to deepen the stretch. Trixie glances down to check Katya’s footing, but catches a glimpse of something she shouldn’t. Katya’s gym shorts are slightly bunched up, revealing the trim of her lacy red panties, hugging her thigh tightly. Feeling guilty and confused by her sudden arousal, Trixie brings her gaze quickly up to eye level, and shortly after releases Katya’s leg from her grasp.

The coach informs the girls on their next stretch, and allows them time to hold the position. Trixie continues through the next stretch, and then the next, but her thoughts remain unchanged. All she can focus on is what she saw.

When the flyers are ready to move on, they set up their third stunt and run it from the start. At a competition, a few weeks prior, this had been the stunt to cost them their first place prize. One of the flyers had come down almost immediately after being put up, and another group dropped only a few seconds later. This mistake lost them enough points to drop from first place to fourth. A placement below third happened so rarely for the girls, that their coaches, and cheer fans on the internet, could barely believe it. So, since then, they have been running it over and over again until it becomes perfect. Their coach starts them off with a count: 5, 6, 7, 8! On their cue: bases set, and flyers jump in. Trixie has both hands on one of Katya’s shoes, while Jaiden holds the other shoe, preparing for the lift. Their back spot, Jasmine, is holding onto Katya’s ankle and thigh. They dip and spin katya around in a full 360. All the flyers put their hands on their hips and pull their shoulders back once they have reached the peak of the stunt. Bases dip again, and flyers kick onto their opposing shoe. Following this, they pull the free foot to their head in a front stretch. Trixie pulls Katya down, allowing her to support herself on Trixie and Jaiden’s shoulders.

Katya is then hoisted back into the air. Now on both feet, she is enabled to perform her choreographed motions, as her bases start to move the stunt towards the center of the floor. Being in the center as a flyer would be an extremely exciting opportunity on any team. But with how well known the cheer gym is, the pressure would be unbearable for many. The team has a longstanding reputation for precision and performing clean routines, and Katya was not interested in changing that. Katya sighs deeply, popping her chest out and fisting her hands tightly, preparing herself. From here they dismount by throwing Katya as high as possible, and catching her in a cradle. On their counts they dip and throw, flicking their wrists and pressing through their toes as much as humanly possible. They watch as Katya turns, kicks, and twists a final time on her way down as the bases line their bodies up so they can catch the incoming flyer. She lands correctly, and the girls bring her petite body down to the ground. Trixie beams at Katya, saying 

“that was flawless!” Katya looks surprised as she responds,

“Really? It didn’t feel like perfection.” Trixie wishes she could roll her eyes to Katya’s blatant humility, but instead just nods her head. Katya tends to hold herself to much too high of a standard, but Trixie feels it is unnecessary. Though Trixie understands the pressures of being on a semi-famous team, she still feels that Katya takes her sport too seriously at times.  
Competition season is just about to start, with their first huge competition, NCA, being the following weekend. The competition will have thousands in attendance, both as audience members, and cheerleaders. There will be people filming the entire event, and an official version that will be recorded by the competition itself. Due to this added pressure, the instructors have been becoming stricter and will be less forgiving if their athletes get tired at the end of routines or if, god forbid, they drop a stunt. After running through the routine five or six-times, Trixie is having a hard time concealing her exhaustion. She feels a bit of relief when she looks over to Katya, seeing her bracing herself on her knees, panting..After yet another run through, athletes are awarded a three minute water break.

Trixie and Katya, fatigued, walk together to the cubbies, snatching their bags from the shelves and pulling out water bottles. Since they are given an extra minute to break, they go into the bathrooms. Trixie approaches the mirror and begins to unravel her now very disheveled high ponytail. One by one, she releases the grip of each band that she so precisely tired just earlier that day. She pulls out the final elastic and begins to massage her scalp. 

“You need to stop putting your ponytail so tight” Katya vocalizes from across the room, with a subtle smile begging to form. Trixie frowns at her,

“and why would I do that?”, she responds, looking at Katya looming behind her in the mirror. 

“Traction alopecia” Katya says plainly, while flipping one side of her choppy bob over her left shoulder. Trixie looks at her, confused,

“care to elaborate?” Katya’s smirk turns into a grin as she simply replies,

“no.” Trixie tries to roll her eyes, but simply can’t stop herself from giggling.

“Like you can talk, you basically only put a quarter of your hair up! Trixie says in reference to Katya’s hair, which is too short to style in anything other than a half-down updo. Katya gasps in mock offense. 

“What else am I supposed to do?!” Katya asks.

“Well to start: You could pin your bangs bag for once.” Trixie replies, smirking, and eyeing the strands of hair that were plastered to Katya's forehead from sweat.

Since break is almost over, Trixie must once again tug her wavy, blonde locks into her usual sleek high pony. Once all her fly-aways are patted down, both her and Katya return to their cubbies, water bottles in hand. They join everyone back on the spring floor, still waiting for a few people to return from the water break. As soon as the whole team is back on the blue floor they are divided into groups based on their power tumbling skills.  
Since Katya came from a gymnastics background, she already had plenty of tumbling and flexibility skills upon arriving at cheer. This is what made her into the star athlete she was. When putting together a routine, coaches never really had to worry about where to place Katya, because she could do practically anything that is asked of her. She is one of the best flyers, and can match most other bases. Trixie has been doing All Star cheer since she was nine, and she is a strong tumbler, despite it being something she has had to work for a bit harder for than Katya. Trixie’s most advanced tumbling pass is a front tuck-through to a hand-spring to a full twisting layout. However, Katya's hardest pass is the same, but with an Arabian and a double twisting layout. The coaches put on cheer music to get everyone pumped up and, in turns, everyone throws their tumbling across the floor. People cheer for each other when they land a difficult pass, and encourage teammates if they’re hesitant to throw a certain skill.

They run the routine again and again, and by the time it’s all over Trixie can feel an ache starting to develop in her shoulders and wrists, due to holding flyers above her head. The rest of the class passes by in a blur of eight counts and water breaks, and before she knows it, the team is doing a cool-down stretch.

By the time they’re out of the gym it's almost nine at night and the crisp autumn air is already settled. Trixie feels the sweat that accumulated on her forehead congeal as the pair trod to their bus stop. Trixie and Katya are waiting together. Trixie is intently listening to Katya tell a story from her gymnastic days. However, Trixie’s focus begins to shift, as she is now noticing the way air from Katya’s mouth moves and condensates in the air. Trixie can’t help but be almost hypnotized by the way Katya’s mouth contorts when she speaks passionately. Katya makes a joke and Trixie cracks a smile, looking her straight in the eyes. Katya then smiles even wider back at her, noticing that their eyes have formally met. Trixie doesn't know how long they have been looking at each other, but she is instantly pulled from the mysterious moment, as she hears the sound of screeching brakes.  
“Looks like your bus is here.” Trixie states plainly, thrown off by having to disconnect eyes. Katya chuckles to herself as the bus door swings open. “Goodnight Trixie”


	2. Friday morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is kind of a shorter one! Hope you guys enjoy still! Next chapter will be soon!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! Any interaction/feed back is very very very much appreciated 
> 
> Here is the doc with the terminology+ Their stunts, uniforms, and tumbling. 💕  
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wz13LpOmuaqQr1K86hRGK2YWmH9ozn-tuyFA2qOGWl0/edit
> 
> My tumblr is ageofaquria 💕💞💕

Trixie is awoken by her cat, Pumpkin, Friday morning. The small orange feline struts towards her head, and settles down under Trixie’s collarbone. Trixie’s breath shortens slightly, with the heavy cat weighing on her chest. But she ignores this minor stifling of her lungs, happy to hear the low rumble of pumpkins affectionate purring.

There is a soft rain, pattering as it hits the leaves of the tree outside her window. Trixie cranes her neck to peek over her cat’s head to check the time. It’s about twenty minutes before her alarm will go off, and she sighs with relief, knowing she didn’t sleep in too long. She still has more than an hour before school starts, though it will only take her three to five minutes to walk to school. The blonde returns her attention back to Pumpkin, scratching her behind the ears and under the chin as she purrs happily. Trixie reclines back into her bedding for a few minutes, but eventually Pumpkin loses interest. Her cat trots to the foot of Trixie’s bed and hops off. Trixie takes this as a sign that it’s probably time for her to get out of her bed as well. So, she does, shuffling towards her dresser to pick out her favorite pair of light-wash blue jeans. She completes the outfit with a white turtleneck and chunky cardigan. She also accessories with some pieces of gold jewelry. 

Her makeup routine is pretty simple: a dab of concealer under both eyes, a little of a warm brown eyeshadow in the crease, mascara, and some lip-gloss. Trixie brushes out her blonde waves until any tangles or fly-aways have been removed. The ends of her hair were just starting to surpass her mid-back when left to their natural waves. Trixie checks herself in the mirror one last time before exiting the room.

While she trudges into the kitchen, to prepare herself breakfast, her phone starts vibrating. She fishes the ringing thing out of her jeans pocket, and flips it over to see an incoming facetime call from Katya. She accepts the call, rearranging her hair slightly to frame her face nicely. The two FaceTime regularly, usually once and sometimes twice a day. If they don’t see each other in person, it’s rare for the pair to go more than twenty-four hours without some kind of communication. Typically, they call to update one another on various life happenings or simply play whatever stupid iphone game is popular at the time. And sometimes, they do both simultaneously. Other times they call just to be in each other's presence, even if they didn't talk at all.

As soon as Trixie picks up the call, Katya is already beaming. She has the top half of her platinum blonde hair in a messy bun, held in place by a chunky alligator clip. She is already wearing her school uniform, minus the blazer. Katya greets her with an oddly chipper hello, especially for so early in the morning. Without giving Trixie the opportunity to respond, she almost immediately jumps into a spiel about the stunts in their routine. The gist of it, as Trixie understands, is that the coaches keep making her pull flexibility positions, and she is coming home sore after every single practice. 

“I mean I understand that they look cool and we get points for them but my poor little feminine legs can’t take it anymore!” Katya slips into a bad southern accent at the end of her sentence and Trixie can’t stifle a giggle at how terrible it is.  
“What!? You think my pain is funny? Trixie bursts out laughing wholeheartedly as Katya’s already bad accent gets even worse the longer she talks. Eventually, Trixie sits down with her breakfast and peacefully munches on it, allowing Katya to continue rambling for a few minutes. Trixie finds herself listening a little too intently, and she stays seated at the table long after finishing her meal, just enjoying Katya talk. Eventually the subject of the weekend’s competition is brought up. “I’m excited to give this competition another chance,” Katya begins. Trixie looks at her quizzically for a moment, then slaps her hand over her mouth as a flood of memories from this competition come back. 

“The shoes!” Trixie exclaims. Katya giggles at Trixies reaction.

“I will never forgive you for what you put me through on that day, Katya.” Through her phone, Trixie can hear her friend fully cackling over this. Trixie starts to recount what happened. Katya was there on the day, but she happily listens, wanting to hear Trixies side of the story.

“First, you forget your shoes. I can't even imagine what caused you to forget them at home. Literally the only things you need to bring are your uniform and your shoes! But regardless, you forgot them. Next, you didn't realise you had forgotten them until we had ALREADY arrived at the competition! And at that point in time, not a single person had spares!” Trixie chronicles the events that followed: Katya having to wear Trixie’s shoes (that were a size too big) and Trixie being forced to compete in her socks, so that no one would notice there was someone missing shoes.

“I still think you should have been the one to wear your socks, seeing as you were the one who managed to forget to bring shoes.You flyers always think you’re so important, and just because you're the ones in the air.” Katya gasps in mock offense at Trixie’s suggestion. 

“Do you genuinely think you would have been able to base me if I wasn't wearing shoes?” Katya inquires seriously.

“Absolutely,” Trixie states officially. The pair crack-up into giggles.

The conversation shifts to a bit of more boring subject matter afterwards, the girls mostly just confirming with each other what time they had to get to the airport, when they had to leave the hotel to get to the competition and other details. The general plan was that they would get on the plane that afternoon, fly for about three and a half hours, then get to the hotel in the late evening, and meet at the competition venue early the next morning. Much of the team would be on the same plane as them. But plenty of others were flying there early to be able to have more time to settle in before the competition. 

Usually, about a day or two before competitions of importance, Trixie’s nerves start to settle in. This was also when Trixie was most grateful for Katya's presence. Unlike Trixie: Katya rarely got flustered over performing or competing.   
“Do you ever get anxious to perform? Like, when do you even get nervous? Trixie questions.   
“I’d say the nerves hit in about three quarters into the routine” Katya deadpans. Trixie screeches a laugh. Soon after, Katya has to hang up to leave for school. Like trixie: Katya also lived relatively close to her high school. Katyas started 15 minutes before trixie did though. Katya attended a religious, all girls, private school. She had to wear a uniform every day, and partook in religious classes. This was very different from Trixie’s high school experience which was a public school with a focus on the arts. Soon, Trixie has to leave her home, and begin the short march to her school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiiii thanks for reading!! Kudos are very much appreciated 
> 
> 💕My tumblr is ageofaquria if you wanna interact lmao 
> 
> Here is the doc with the terminology+ Their stunts, uniforms, and tumbling. 💕  
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wz13LpOmuaqQr1K86hRGK2YWmH9ozn-tuyFA2qOGWl0/edit


	3. Friday night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This ones a lil bit longer and features the gals journey to the competition and the first half of their competing :) 
> 
> Here is the google doc with all the extras, I’m gonna be putting some concept art in there sometime soon so look out for that 💕💕  
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wz13LpOmuaqQr1K86hRGK2YWmH9ozn-tuyFA2qOGWl0/edit
> 
> 💕Tumblr: ageofaquria

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiii! Thanks to those of you have left kudos and comments!! It really really means a lot 💗💗💗 I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think! Feedback is very much appreciated!

Trixie gazes at Katya quietly for the majority of the car ride to the airport. Katya either doesn’t care, or doesn’t notice. Probably the ladder of the two though, because Katya’s focus is drawn only to her window. She watches the way the headlights of cars reflect onto the damp highway pavement, freshly coated in rain. The deep azule of the rainy night sky contrasted with the harsh artificial shine of street lights. Lamp posts reflect off the rain-slick asphalt and illuminate Katya's features softly. It’s too dim to make anything out but the slope of her nose, the plump of her lips, and where light was reflecting in her eyes. There’s some music playing distantly on the car radio, but it’s too faint to really make out the lyrics. Katya had her bob tucked behind her ear, but some strands had already come loose, dangling free. 

Once they have arrived at the airport and passed through security time seems to slow down. They have an hour to kill, so the two head to find whatever food options are available in the airport. After perusing their limited choices, they settle on a slightly greasy looking pizza place, mostly because it has seating by a large window and decent vegetarian options. Once the girls get their slices they stalk over to the giant airport window, where planes of all sizes can be seen taking off and landing. Trixie watches droplets of rain water slither down the glass and notices absentmindedly that the weather is thankfully starting to let up. 

“Do you know what time we warm up?” Trixie asks casually as they settle in. Katya takes a moment to think before replying. 

“We perform at 10:30 for sure. Warm up usually starts forty minutes before though, but we can check the schedule on the plane.” Trixie nods, while taking a bite of her slice. It was normal for her to start asking questions like this right before a big competition. She doesn’t actually care that much what time warm up is. She just needs reassurance from Katya. 

Soon, after they finish their pizza, they head to their gate. There's still twenty minutes before their flight boards, so they sit on the uncomfortable airport benches, and start one of the movies they had downloaded. A few rows away from them, Trixie see’s Violet and Pearl: flyers from the cheer team. She waves to them politely and the two wave back, but neither pairing actually makes any advances toward interacting with each other any further than that. They're pretty tired already and Trixie would rather pretend like it was only her and Katya going on this adventure. 

The flight boards pretty quickly and soon enough they are in the air. The pair get through a sufficient amount of their entertainment by the time the flight has touched down in Dallas. The two stay seated for a bit, waiting for the mass amounts of passengers to pull down their carry-on luggage and hobble towards the exit. Trixe yawns excessively, in an attempt to pop her ears, but has no luck. Eventually they clear out, and the pair shuffle through the narrow aisle following behind a few others who seem to know where they're going.

They arrive at their hotel slightly earlier than expected, at ten pm, and collect their key cards from the front desk. They take the elevator up all the way to the 8th floor, but both girls are too drained from the busy day to speak. The elevator dings and they step out. Trixie stops to double check the room number indented onto her key card as the elevator doors close behind her. Trixie looks back up, scanning for their room only to see Katya is already jogging up to it, key card in hand.

Trixie observes her from a distance, Katya scans the card, peers in, and stops in her tracks. She looks over her shoulder to Trixie, perplexed.

“What? Is there a dead body in there?” Trixie jokes as she scurries towards the doorway. 

“There’s only one bed” Katya states, ignoring Trixies joke, anxiety seeping into her words. Trixie arches her brow.

“Well, don’t you think two beds would be kind of expensive?” Trixie replies casually, pushing past Katya.

“I don’t know Trix, I move around a lot when I sleep...” Katya trails off, still standing in the doorway. Trixie shrugs.

“It’s not that bad, also I’m a heavy sleeper.” Katya sighs, knowing there’s nothing to be done now. She tugs her luggage to the other side of the bed from where Trixie has put hers and sits down. The girls change into Pj’s and tuck in. As they never finished the last movie they watched on the plane, they decide to finish it up now. When the film ends and the credits begin to roll, they turn it off. Flicking off the lights, and throwing any excess pillows past the foot of the bed, the girls burrow under the covers. Trixie lies on her side, with her chest facing towards Katya. Katya is on her back, duvet pulled below her chin. The two are unconscious within minutes. 

Trixie blinks a few times, her brain is foggy and the dim light that's starting to seep through the heavy hotel curtains assaults her sensitive corneas. She doesn’t know what woke her up, since her alarm isn’t due to go off until 7:30. She allows her eyes to focus and is abruptly met with the image of Katya's sleeping face very close to hers. Their noses are almost touching and Trixie can easily make out every detail of Katya's slumbering face. Katya's eyelashes still have a bit of mascara residue on them from the day before Her white-blonde hair is draped over her cheekbones. But Trixie can still spot the miniscule red line of a healed-over scar peeking through the strands. The mark drapes over the highpoint of Katya's cheek, adjacent to her brow. 

Trixie is very unpreparedly hyper aware of every single part of her body. She is laying on her side, facing the other girl, arm draped over the small of Katya's waist, their legs intertwined. Trixie immediately becomes insecure about her breathing, and almost asphyxiates trying to even it so Katya doesn't feel her unsteady breath on her face. Trixie isn’t sure what to do, the pair were close for sure, but Katya had always seemed a bit uncomfortable with stuff like this. They are used to curling up to one another while watching movies, but they had never entangled themselves to an extent like this. Trixie commences trying to untie herself from the knot of limbs the two girls have become, but quickly regrets it when she catches Katya start to stir, disturbed by the movement. Trixie panics and decides to just pretend to go back to sleep. If Katya didn’t like it she would tell her, right?

Later Trixie feels movement from Katya. She assumes Katya had become aware of their position and decided to remove herself from it. Trixie feels a sense of disappointment in the back of her brain, she was quite comfortable nestled into Katya's body. Very much to Trixies surprise, she feels Katya pull her in even closer: cuddling into Trixies chest . Trixie isn't sure whether Katya came out of her slumber entirely or just brought her closer unconsciously. Trixie doesn’t want to reveal herself pretending to be asleep: she unwinds further, and drifts back into unconsciousness. 

Some time later: Trixie wakes up once again, and she immediately notices a lack of Katya. She reaches out to try and feel for her, but only finds an empty mattress instead. Trixie sits up, rubbing her eyes groggily. She notices her phone alarm going off and she reaches to her nightstand to turn it off. She blinks a few times, allowing her eyes to adjust to the bright screen in her hand. Katya is standing at the bathroom mirror applying makeup. Trixie is unsure of how to react, trying to gage whether katya was uncomfortable, or even aware of their closeness just hours before.Trixie goes for what hopefully sounds like a normal opening

“good morning Katy!” She says, maybe a bit too loud for 7am. She sees Katya crack a small smile in the mirror,

“good morning to you too, Trix”.  
Trixie checks the time again, then launches herself out of the bed and turns around to make the duvet look somewhat presentable again. Once the bed is mostly made, she grabs her and Katya’s cheer bags, situating them onto the bed. She spins on her heel and makes her way over to their shared suitcase, unzipping it and throwing the lid open. From the luggage, she pulls out their matching team jackets and two pairs of sweatpants for the girls to wear on the way there. She then turns to lay them out on the bed, placing the team uniforms on top of the lounge wear. Delving back into the suitcase, Trixie looks for their cheer shoes, hair bows and various makeup and hair products that they will need for the competition. Today they perform at 10:30, so they have to be at the stadium in full hair and makeup by 8:30 am sharp (roughly one hour from now). Once Trixie has carefully organized the content of both of the girls’ backpacks, she joins Katya in the bathroom, putting on a playlist the two had made especially for this occasion. It consists of mostly hits from the late 2000s, with some cheer music and 90s Russian pop thrown in for good measure.   
The team makeup look is a simple, Black Smokey eye on the top and a flash of bright red eyeshadow along the waterline. The lipstick is a vibrant cherry red. Katya has already done her base makeup, and is just starting to smoke out her eyeshadow. Trixie starts with the eyeshadow, marking it out precisely before blending it. 

Both girls get their makeup done quicker than usual, and move on to helping each other with their hair. Cheer hair is often a two person job, even though it definitely isn’t as extreme as it used to be in cheerleading. Trixie remembers being around thirteen years old and having to keep her hair in uncomfortable curlers the night before competitions, then having to wake up extra early to tease it to high heaven. 

Trixie puts her hair in a tight high ponytail. Then turns to assist Katya with hers. Since Katya has shorter hair, she only puts hers half up. She used to clip and gel her bangs back but she doesn’t bother anymore. Instead, she solely hairsprays them in place, ensuring they will stay in place throughout the competition. Trixie commences lightly backcombing Katya's ponytail. Once her hair is sufficiently volumized, they trade places. 

They put their bows on, securing the hair accessories with excessive amounts of bobby pins and hairspray. Bows are a classic piece in cheerleading culture, and Trixie is glad that their team has decided to hold onto them. Though Katya thinks the opposite. Mainly because they were uncomfortable, and a bit tacky. However, Katya can understand why Trixie loves them so much. Their team's bow is a flamboyant ruby red with black rhinestones detailing and the team's name in the center. The entire thing is covered in a dense layer of glitter, as is standard for cheer hair pieces.   
“You ready to go?” Katya asks, and Trixie nods, still singing along to the music that’s playing.

Trixie has walked into hundreds of competitions in her life but competitions as big as NCA always felt brand new. As they enter the stadium Trixie can see that there are already plenty of people in the audience. The first team wouldn’t perform for another half hour. Yet the stands were already populous. 

In the Center of the room was the spring floor they would perform on. There was a huge Banner behind the carpet proudly declaring the name of the competition, and large curtains either side of the carpet for athletes to enter through. There were gigantic lights, shining in all different colors, pointed at the competition floor. And spotlights that would follow teams as they prance on stage. There were also humongous black speakers hanging from the ceiling, and sitting on either side of the floor, pointed towards the audience. Close to the front of the floor there was a reserved viewing area so that cheerleaders could sit and watch fellow athletes performances. 

Trixie and Katya wander around to the backstage area. They approach the metal barrier that stands between the public area and the section where athletes can meet and warm up with their team. Here, the pair is greeted by an energetic woman. She asks them their Names, and confirms they are on the competition registry. Once checked in, she gives them their wristbands. The girls advance through and Trixie squints, trying to pick out their team amongst the sea of teams warming up in their own respectives areas. Trixie spots a few competitors most notably: The California bullets, CA pythons, and FA hurricane. Trixie spots them, all wearing red and black, and they start marching towards the team. Most of the team seems to be there so Trixie and Katya add their bags to the very large pile of glittery backpacks and park themselves on the concrete floor.

“Hey girls” a fellow flyer, Violet, vocalizes. She’s smiling warmly at the two. 

“You guys all look great” Trixie compliments the three girls who were already seated on the ground with their bags. They all thank her, complimenting backThe team is scattered out in little groups; some girls are on their phones, some are helping teammates with their hair or makeup, and some are chatting.

Trixie and Katya decide to sit with a group of 3 of their teammates, They engage in some casual banter for a half hour. The conversation is abruptly interrupted by their coach giving them a five minute warning for their warm up. This was when athletes were no longer allowed to wear anything over their uniforms. Cheerleaders return to their backpacks to deposit their phones, sweatpants, hoodies, or any other item they weren't supposed to bring with them onto the warm up floor. Trixie and Katya both slip out of their sweatpants and jackets to reveal their competition uniforms.

This year’s uniform had to have been one of Trixie’s favourites in a while. It was a two piece set with a high neck long sleeve top and skirt that had shorts underneath. The skirt was tight fitting and had a triangle slit along the side of the right leg. The opening in the fabric revealed beautiful red Swarovski detailing on the leg of the shorts underneath. It also gave the skirt a bit of flare at the bottom, making it quite flattering and a bit more mobile for jumps and tumbling. The top had the team’s logo in more red rhinestones across the chest, which contrasted perfectly with the black background of the top. And there was some sheer paneling at the bicep and collarbone. There was more red and white detailing on the sleeves and the waistband of the uniform.

The team lines up and is led to a nearby space reserved for athletes to warm up. Their instructor calls for the team to get into their jump formation and everyone scrambles to get to their correct place. They are led through a lengthy warm up and stretch, their coach shouting out counts the whole way through.

As soon as their time is up, they’re promptly shooed to the next carpet. There were four different areas of blue floor that they had to move through. Each section of carpet had a different combination of shape and spring so that athletes can warm up different skills in the appropriate place and time.

This was usually when Trixie would start getting anxious. The first floor was unsprung and square. They run each stunt twice on this floor, things are going well until they get to their second to last stunt. They get through the first half fine: pressing Katya high above their heads as she pulls a front heel-stretch. Katya switch-kicks onto her other shoe and Trixie can't quite clutch the flyer’s foot in time. She catches it low and the bases fight to get the stunt back in time. They try to move into the next part of the stunt but it's too unstable and Katya starts falling forward. Trixie captures her, before the flyer can hit the carpet, wrapping her arms tightly around her waist. She plants the flyer back onto the floor. Katya re-establishes herself on the ground and turns over her shoulder to Trixie. She reaches an arm out and lightly brushes Trixies bicep.   
“Hey Trix, what happened?” she questions softly. 

“I- i don't even know… i didn't regrab in time, i think” Trixie stammers. Katya nods understandingly. 

“Hey, don't get worried about it, I just wanted to know if i did something wrong.” Katya explains. Their coach instructs them to run the stunt again and they set back up immediately. The rest of the stunt warmup goes smoothly but Trixie can feel a slight anxious jitter in her knees as she steps off the carpet. Now more nervous at the idea of dropping Katya's most important stunt. The next floor was sprung and rectangular; this is where they throw jumps and tumbling. The third floor was also sprung, much bigger than the other two, and was square. This was where they would do their final mark-through of the routine before performing.

The team moves to the last carpet, and gets in their opening placements. The routine they do here is a simple walk through. Athletes move through the choreography without doing any stunts, jumps or tumbling. This isn't really for the athletes to remember their routines, it was a tactic the coaches used to ease their nerves. Trixie was well aware of this, but she was also well aware that it worked for her. They mark through the routine, jogging from place to place, doing motions and miming stunts.

The team is led away from the final warm up carpet and towards the entrance to the competition floor. There's already a team waiting to go on. Their uniforms are purple and gold, with coordinating bows, they have the name “royalty” splashed across their chests in gold rhinestones. Trixie watches as the team's name is called and the cheerleaders all energetically jog out, pushing back the curtain. Trixie sees flashes of the crowd as the curtain flaps back and forth and her heart-rate doubles. The entire stadium is packed with people and their sheer volume is enough to make Trixie feel lightheaded.

The team makes a circle and athletes take turns speaking to the group. Mostly encouraging each other or offering different advice. Everyone is holding hands and Trixie can almost feel the nervousness and excitement running through everyone else's body. Katya squeezes her hand as a particularly enthusiastic base finishes her speech. Trixie can hear cheer music playing from the other side of the curtain and tenses up once again as she hears what is undeniably a tempo change into the dance section of the team that is performing. 

Loud applause fills the stadium and the team lines up, preparing to walk onto the competition floor. They arrange themselves in two, straight, perpendicular lines. And wait. They stand backstage for what Trixie knows is only about 15 seconds. But it feels like several lifetimes waiting to hear the name of their team. 

Trixie cringes as the announcer begins to introduce them. His words go by too quickly and Trixie has to soothe herself before he finishes his introduction. As if she had sensed Trixies uncertainty: Katya reaches her hand out to the small of the bases back. She holds it there for a second and Trixie grounds herself. Concentrating only on the sensation of Katya's fingertips dancing lightly on her skin. Trixie is suddenly brought back to her surroundings by a sudden amplification of the audience's cheers.   
The girls ahead of her toss the curtain out of the way and Trixie skips onto the mat, waving at the audience, a huge smile plastered across her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed! New chapter should be out on the 10th at the latest💕  
> Tumblr: ageofaquria
> 
> Extras and info: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wz13LpOmuaqQr1K86hRGK2YWmH9ozn-tuyFA2qOGWl0/edit


	4. saturday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trixie and Katya perform their routine and find out how they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the performance!! now is definitely the best time to take a peek at the google doc if you are not familiar with what stunting looks like: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wz13LpOmuaqQr1K86hRGK2YWmH9ozn-tuyFA2qOGWl0/edit?usp=sharing  
>  It has videos of most of the stunts and tumbling mentioned if you're interested in what any of them look like
> 
> feedback is really really appreciated and thanks to all of you who have been reading and leaving kudos and commenting it means a lot!
> 
> tumblr: https://ageofaquria.tumblr.com

The team gets into their opening position. Katya starts right in the middle of the floor at the front of the mat. She stands with her hands on her hips and her right leg popped, only a few feet from the area where cheerleaders sit and watch. Trixie and Jaiden stand side by side, a little bit behind Katya, forming a triangle shape. There are four other stunt groups standing staggered behind them, each group in the same formation. The rest of the team (eight athletes) are standing at the back of the floor, ready to tumble forward when the music starts.

Trixie tries not to squint at the bright competition bulbs illuminating the team. The rhinestones on her uniform twinkle under the moving spotlights, sparkling back out onto the audience. The crowd is deafening. Screaming and clapping as they anticipate the beginning of the routine. Trixie evens out her breath, tilts her chin up and puffs up her chest. She exudes confidence, to any onlooker it would seem that she didn't have a single nervous cell in her body.

The music starts, and Trixie immediately jumps into her routine. Ignoring how overpowering the volume of the speakers are in her eardrums. Sassily doing the opening move, she makes a wild sweeping motion with one hand that Jaiden mirrors. Before she turns sharply to prepare for the first stunt, Katya opens both her arms wide in a similar motion to Trixie’s. She then steps one sneaker forward into Trixie’s hands, setting up for the opening stunt. Trixie and Jaiden get their grips and maneuver their arms so they can twist Katya’s shoe to their chests as she stands up and hits a high V with her arms. The four other groups (being flown by Violet, Shea, Pearl, and Jaida) are doing the same stunt in unison behind them, while the rest of the team flips and twists towards the front of the floor. The tumblers land exactly as the flyers hit their scorpion, and an audible uproar can be heard from the crowd! Trixie throws Katya with her entire body, watching the girl twist twice in the air. They catch her, clean, and march determinedly to their jump sequence. After: jumps, standing tumbling, and baskets pass in a blur. 

The team rearranges to the running tumbling section. Trixie steps twice swinging her arms to her ears in synchronization with four others, who are going diagonally across the floor. Trixie lands her tumbling and whips her head towards the crowd, smiling big. This is where she meets with Katya and Jaiden once again. Trixie redirects her focus to the stunt at hand. Not only is this the skill they had dropped during warm up, it’s also when Katya will be front and center. Having her hands in the slightest wrong position, or twisting too fast, or too slow could be enough for the entire thing to come down. Trixie can’t let a single thing happen to ruin this stunt. 

Katya jumps in, her bases spinning her in a full 360 on her way up. The flyers motion sassily as their bases start to move the stunt to their new spot on the floor. Katya focuses intensely on her expressions, making sure to perform as hard as she possibly can. She grins as she pulls her leg behind her head into a needle. On their counts, bases dip and flyers kick to their other foot. Trixie and Jaiden regrip the shoe, holding on for dear life. Trixie beams from under the stunt, unbelievingly grateful that it had hit perfectly, and now all they have to do is the kick to double. The bases dip and toss Katya high above them, and she soars into the air. At the peak of the throw, she kicks her leg hard and snaps her arms high above her head. She then pulls her leg and arms back down tight to her body, and uses the momentum of it to spin twice in the air before being caught by Trixie and Jaiden. The bases bend their knees to absorb the impact, and set the flyer down lightly; they executed this stunt perfectly.  
The rest of the routine goes by faster than Trixie can even process. Before she even realizes it she is hitting her finishing pose, chest heaving from her ragged breaths. She pants heavily through her grin, while still holding the pose. The crowd erupts into overwhelming applause. 

Katya grabs both of Trixies hands and squeezes them, both girls beaming at one another. The girls pull one another in for a hug as the announcer comes back onto the loudspeakers. The team takes their queue and jogs off the mat, smiling and waving to the audience. Most of the cheerleaders are still embracing each other in some way or another, holding hands, linking elbows, putting an arm around their shoulders. Everyone has a skip in their step as they return backstage. Some athletes are even crying: from joy and relief that their routine had received no deductions. Trixie is overjoyed. Hitting such a technically challenging routine at a competition of this scale was truly one of the best feelings in the world. 

“You were so good,” Katya says, still trying to catch her breath. Trixie returns the compliment. Their coach congratulates them, leading them into the designated area for teams to watch their performance video back. The ceilings are low and the walls are an unpleasant off-white color. Against one wall there is a television and a single water-cooler. The unfinished looking basement juxtaposes very strangely with the rest of the competition. Exhausted, they all clamor to get to the water first. Desperate to rehydrate.

Disposable paper cups in hand: everyone gathers around the tv, some sitting on the floor, breathing still delayed from how physically exerting the routine was. Others stand bent over, supporting themselves on their knees. For the entirety of the video playback Trixie is only watching Katya. She is hitting her motions sharper than any other flyer and is giving the most personality Trixie has ever seen Katya deliver. You can see the girls bleach-white teeth all the way from where the camera is recording. And they almost seem to reflect light as well as the gem-stones on her uniform. Trixie and Katya still have their hands intertwined, and Katya squeezes her fingernails into trixies palm throughout the routine. At the part where their group moves to center. Trixie watches: in awe at how the stunt looks from the camera’s perspective.

Soon after being led out of the room by their coach they reappear backstage: Their coach gathers everyone in a circle and gives them a short speech. He starts by congratulating them, but subsequently shifts his tone.  
“Now, i know you guys just hit a perfect routine. But i need you guys to keep in mind that this is not a regular competition. There are some major names here, so your winning is not ensured 100 percent.” the team nods in understanding. Their coach lets them go, reminding them to be back ten minutes before awards, and the squad splits off to explore the stadium.

They have a few hours until they have to return, so Trixie and Katya decide to leave for the nearby McDonalds with a few teammates. Trixie throws a zip-up hoodie on top of her uniform and swaps out her cheer shoes for white sneakers. Katya does the same and the group heads off.

Once their food has been handed to them they travel across the sticky floor and sit down at a booth. No one spares any time, scarfing down their meal. This was everyone's first real food since the early morning so there isn't much chatting for the first few minutes that they are seated. Eventually they commence talking amongst each other. Very suddenly: Violet pipes up.  
“Guys, Pearl just texted me” Shea rolls her eyes at Violet's interruption.  
“doesn’t she always?” Trixie stifles a giggle at Shea's comment.   
“No! but it's important! She says that the bullets just hit a perfect routine” Violet finalizes.

“The Cali bullets?” Katya inquires. Trixie could sense the tinge of worry in her voice, this was the team that had won this competition the previous year. Trixie had seen videos of their current routine and it was impressive to say the least. Trixie can't help feeling a bit more anxious: that team was probably their hardest competition. 

They get back to the stadium a little less than two hours later. They had continued chatting for a while after finishing their food. Trixie and Katya decide to explore the venue. There are banners everywhere that have the logos of the brands that sponsor the event. Most make sense: energy drink brands, sportswear labels, and cheerleading companies. There are also some weirder ones, Trixie spots: the logos of FedEx, a random grocery store chain, and two corporations that neither Trixie nor Katya had ever heard of.

They traipse across to one of the many merchandise stands, looking through the options. A huge majority of cheer competition merch was very tacky. Close to every item had a gratuitous amount of glitter, or a slightly outdated sassy tagline on it. They approach a stand that is decked out with bows in every size, color, and style.   
“Please don’t” Katya starts, noticing how intensely Trixie is looking at the wide variety of options.   
“you can’t stop me from buying the gaudiest, glitteriest, most over-the-top bow at this stand” Trixie replies, grinning.  
“I know i can’t stop you, but I can shame you,” Katya retorts. Trixie crosses her arms over her chest, still scanning over the many options. Trixie’s gaze stops and she reaches for one of the larger hair accessories. She holds it up for Katya to see and she groans. It’s a hot pink bow that is completely coated in dense hot pink glitter. It has little holographic flakes mixed in too. There are rhinestones outlining the edges of the ribbon, in pink and white. Trixie thoroughly inspects it before handing it to the cashier. 

Trixie carefully places the bow in her backpack and the pair continue to look at more stands. Katya opts to get a simple black shirt that had the logo of the competition on it. It was probably one of the cheapest things in the entire venue and Katya was incredibly pleased with her purchase. She had a collection of t-shirts from various competitions over the years and she would usually only get one if her team had won, or she was just really happy with their performance. Katya rolls up her new shirt and tosses it in her bag. There are only a few routines left so the pair decide to go watch some of the last competitors of the day.

Trixie and Katya return to the backstage area, ten minutes early as requested by their coach. Upon arriving; they remove additional clothing layers and use Katya’s phone as a mirror to ensure their makeup has not smudged too noticeably. Trixie hurriedly reglues the inner corner of her false eyelash, as it had started to lift from all the activity of the day.   
They are told to pair up with a teammate and form two perpendicular lines. Katya and Trixie stand with their shoulders brushing, fingers enlaced. They're the second pair in the long queue, two bases standing ahead of them. The lines snake across to where other teams are starting to gather behind the curtains, waiting to be called back onto the floor. There is loud pop music playing over the speakers on the carpets sides, that the announcer is talking over as he introduces each squad. Every team is announced rapidly and given a brief round of applause as they return to the floor. 

The team sits towards the edge of the carpet, forming a large oval. Trixie picks at the fuzz of the floor anxiously. Technically speaking: awards had started, but no one would be winning anything for at least another twenty-five minutes. Something that, in Trixie's experience, only made everyone more agitated.

The music playing begins fading out and the host advances towards the center of the floor with a microphone in hand. He greets the audience animatedly as he walks. The announcer then commences his monologue. Thanking different organizers and sponsors of the event. This only goes on for about ten minutes and Trixie is grateful that the man is charismatic enough that it isn't terribly boring. 

Once the host has finished his speech, they wheel out several large tables that have all the prizes packed densely onto them. Glossy trophies of all different sizes and shiny medals reflect under the fluorescent lights. There's also a table stacked high with brightly wrapped bags. If Trixie was correct, the bags would have some random assortment of merchandise stuffed into them: usually bows, shirts, banners, scrunchies, pins, or hoodies.

The first place team of every division would get a trophy for the gym and every team member would get a medal and bag full of merchandise. There would also usually be confetti or balloons released for the first place winners of higher divisions. The other teams in the top three would get the same prizes, just in silver and bronze. The trophies were also a bit less ostentatious and oversized. 

When they finally get to distributing the awards every team in the division stands up. The squad starts to form a sort of huddle, and teammates hold hands.  
There are eighteen teams in the division, and they start off announcing eighteenth place and work up from there. Every single time a team is given their placement it feels like another layer of tension is added to the room. The team that came in sixth is announced and Trixie feels like she is about to burst. The five remaining teams are all pretty big: Trixie recognizes the uniforms of The California Bullets, FA Hurricane, and Blue lightning. She can't quite identify the last one, their uniform colors unfamiliar.  
Fifth place is announced: FA Hurricane, fourth place: Blue lightning. Trixie feels Katya’s hand on hers tighten every time their team's name is not called. They were now in the top three with the team that had beat them the previous year. Katya's grip on her hand is bone breakingly tight. The announcer’s words boom over the speaker.   
“and in third place: your bronze medal champions… with a zero deduction routine, from New York City-”  
Trixie’s heart sinks. Katya's grip on her hand loosens. Trixie hears some cheers distantly and does her bust to muster a smile, despite the physical pain growing in her chest. She knew that third place was good, it was incredible. But not winning was disappointing, especially after what they all thought was such a strong performance.   
“The NYC Cougars!” the announcer finishes. Trixie scans around confused by the unfamiliar name. Was there a mix up? Did they get the squad's name wrong? She peers over her shoulder to see the unfamiliar team being handed their third place trophy and medals. Trixie glances at Katya.   
“Have you ever heard of them?” Katya shakes her head. It was rare that a team would even make it past the preliminary competitions without having some Instagram notoriety at least. 

Her chest tightens as it dawns on her that they were still in the running for first gold. She can feel Katya’s nails start to dig into her palm and she squeezes back. The third place team sits back down: smiling amongst one another. Trixie looks back at her shoes as the announcer comes back onto the loudspeaker. 

“And now our first place winners… with a score of 97.6, zero deductions, your new national champions, also from New York: it’s the Liberty All Stars!” The volume in the room suddenly triples. The entire team is screeching and hollering in joy. The audience is cheering boisterously.

Trixie gasps and is almost immediately tackled by Katya in a bear hug. Her back hits the carpet, and all the air is knocked out of her lungs at the impact. She grins and snaps her eyelids open to see Katya beaming down at her. Other team members are also hugging, jumping in their place excitedly, many are crying. Trixie and Katya reconnect eyes and Trixie half notices gold streams of confetti begin to twirl down from the ceiling. They seem to change color as they fall, the light reflecting off their metallic sheen. Trixie pulls Katya down towards her, and rests her forehead in the crook of the girl's collarbone. She wraps her limbs around Katya's frame and squeezes, ignoring the rounded edges of rhinestones that are digging into her cheek. They separate some time afterwards, but never once do their fingers untangle.

The team is handed a trophy. And to be distributed amongst teammates: there are gold medals and merch bags. Everyone struggles to tug their medals over their oversized hair and bows. Trixie can’t stop smiling and giggling throughout the rest of the awards. To say the least: she was ecstatic. The team is subsequently ushered over to the center of the floor and about thirty people begin to picture the first place national champions. It’s mostly the team members' parents who flew out taking photos on their iPhone. There are also a few professional photographers, hired by either the competition or various cheerleading publications. They wield large, expensive looking cameras, whose flashes are close to blinding whenever they go off. 

When the photos are finally done being taken some girls disappear almost immediately, tired from the physically exerting day. Trixie and Katya practically skip to the backstage area, too overjoyed to be embarrassed. A few people stop them to congratulate the team on the way there and Trixie can’t wipe the smile from her lips as she thanks them. The pair unzip their bags and tug their sweatpants on top of their uniforms once again. Trixie was not a huge fan of the feeling of rhinestones digging into the flesh of her elbows and neck, but she was even less interested in going into the competition changing areas. 

Stepping out of the stadium is a bit shocking to the eyes. The evening sky is already pitch black as opposed to the bright white fluorescents of the arena. Their Uber arrives quickly, headlights blazing through the dark. Trixie and Katya are still feeling the energy of their win by the time they arrive back at the hotel, and despite the darkness physically around them, Trixie feels like she is glowing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!!!!!!! hope you enjoyed :)  
> feedback is really really appreciated and thanks to all of you who have been reading and leaving kudos and commenting it means a lot!
> 
> tumblr: https://ageofaquria.tumblr.com


	5. saturday night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> getting home after the competition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! thank you so much for reading thus far! hope you all enjoy! :)
> 
> tumblr: ageofaquria
> 
> kudos and comments are VERY much appreciated do not be afraid to share feedback even if its very small ty 
> 
> (only one chapter left omg)

Once through the hotel doorway the pair race to get out of their uniforms and makeup. It had been more than twelve hours since they had started to get ready and there were very few body parts of Trixie’s that weren’t aching from exhaustion or over exertion. Trixie goes to the mirror and starts pulling bobby pins from her ponytail.

As she starts to untangle the mess on her head, created by securing her bow earlier that morning, she catches Katya through the bathroom mirror. She’s standing at the foot of the bed, illuminated only by the warm orange bulb on the hotel lamp. She's facing away from Trixie's gaze, undoing the closures on the back of her top. Trixie observes the shorter girl's tiny frame, and the way her muscles tense and loosen as she slides the sleeves off of her strong arms. Her biceps flex as she pulls the rest of the top over her head, and Trixie flinches as she realizes she is seeing Katya's exposed back. Trixie snaps her eyes back to her ponytail, afraid that she saw too much. She's uses a damp washcloth to loosen the thick coating of hairspray that’s now rock solid.

Once Trixie's removed the last elastic, she (as gently as she can) runs her fingers over her scalp, separating the strands that the washcloth couldn't. She continues to do this as she walks through the doorway and back to her side of the bed, depositing the hair-bow back into her bag. In a moment of sheer forgetfulness she spins back around, only to make direct eye contact with Katya, wearing nothing but her bright cherry red panties. Trixie’s brain doesn’t comprehend what she's seeing, but her mouth moves for her.   
“Sorry! Sorry! I forgot you were there.” Trixie exclaims, covering her eyes with her palms. Katya chuckles lightly at Trixie's reaction, and makes no attempt to hide her exposed figure.  
“It’s ok Trix, it’s ok” Katya reassures, talking through giggles. Katya seems amused by Trixie's embarrassment. Katya drapes a hotel bathrobe over her shoulders, tying it in front of her, and informs Trixie of such.   
“Trixie, it's fine, chill” Katya adds casually, sitting cross legged on the edge of the bed. Trixie doesn't remove her hands from her eyes, still mortified.   
“Um, I am gonna go shower now… yeah, that’s what I am going to do.” Trixie sputters, shuffling towards the shower. Katya stops her.  
“You're not going first” she starts, “you’re going to take forever.” Trixie finally looks up at Katya and gives an exasperated sigh.  
“I based you all day!” she responds, knowing it’s a bit of a weak argument.  
“I deserve it, I’m way sweatier than you.” Katya retorts. Trixie huffs.   
“I can’t say that’s not true…”, Trixie argues through a laugh. Katya cackles and crosses her arms over her chest, triumphant. Trixie rolls her eyes.  
“Fine”. Trixie shuffles back to the bed and plops onto her front.

Katya comes back out in under five minutes, and Trixie thanks her for her swiftness. She's got a towel wrapped around her, tucked under her arms. The bright white making Katya's skin look even more tan. Remnants of her eye makeup still sits at the base of her eyelashes, half washed off from the shower. Katya's hair is soaking wet, dripping onto the carpet and her bare shoulders. Small beads of water are trailing down her biceps, migrating from her shoulders.   
“You can shower now”, Katya states obviously. Trixie blushes and directs herself to the shower.

Trixie emerges from the bathroom, already wearing her pajamas. Pink cotton sleep shorts and an oversized cheer shirt. Katya is also changed: in the t-shirt she had bought at the competition that day, a black zip-up hoodie, and flannel pajama pants. She is sitting up, on her phone, with a huge stack of pillows behind her head. Trixie sits next to her and pulls the covers to her middle, she arranges her share of pillows so she can sit in a similar position to Katya.   
“You wanna watch a movie?” Trixie asks, remote already pointed at the hotel's television.  
“Sure.” Once they’ve found something of interest, Katya flicks off the lamp and they settle in. Half of an hour in Trixie starts getting drowsy. She does her best to keep her eyelids open, but it feels like someone's put weights on her eyelashes. Eventually she accepts the loss and allows her entire body to melt into the plush hotel bedding. She stirs soon after, awoken by a loud action scene. Her head is crooked, resting on Katya's muscular shoulder. She takes a deep breath, feeling content despite the slight disturbance of her peace. Trixie buries her head further into Katya's side, and wraps her arm around the girl's middle.   
By the time the movie credits roll, the girls are still in this position. Katya starts feeling around for the remote to turn the tv off. All the lights are off, so the only guidance she has is the very faint glow of the television, and the small amount of light leaking through the curtains from street lamps outside. Trixie can feel the mattress around her midriff sink slightly and rise again, as Katya is patting the foam in search of the little black rectangle. Trixie sits up slightly from where she's resting, to feel around with Katya to search for the missing remote. Trixie freezes as she feels what is unmistakably Katya's hand on her inner thigh. 

Trixie can sense Katya’s hand linger longer than it needs to, and she can't stop a small shiver from running down her spine. She brushes it off though, and continues looking for the remote. Soon enough, Katya discovers it hidden under a tangle in the duvet. She holds it up and turns the tv off. Trixie blinks a few times, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. Trixie then looks to Katya, but realizes shortly that in the dark she can only make out her features, and no clear expression.

As her eyes adjust a bit more, she can make proper eye-contact with Katya. Trixie, without realizing, reaches out. She tucks a stray strand of Katya's hair behind her ear; their eyes are still interlocked. Trixie shifts herself towards the other girl a bit, and Katya does the same. Katya's hand finds Trixie's and she brushes their fingertips together, interlacing their ring fingers. Trixie breaks their eye contact for a moment to observe their hands. Katya's nails are bare, clipped short. Trixie's are well manicured with a fresh coat of a clear lacquer. Trixie returns her eyes to Katya's.

“Trixie I-” Katya starts, speaking barely above a whisper. Trixie doesn't let her finish closing the distance between their bodies. Katya stiffens for a moment before relaxing into the sensation. Katya's lips are fresh with moisture and Trixie relaxes further at the familiar scent of Katya's lip balm. Katya's hands advance towards Trixie's waist. One of her hands settles at the dip right above Trixie's hip-bone. The other travels up Trixie's back and rests between her shoulder blades. Trixie feels goosebumps spring up where Katya's skin meets hers. She presses in further, still gentle, almost too careful. Like if she were to hold her too tightly she would crack. Trixie's lips are pillowy and becoming more and more responsive to Katya's movements. Her fingers entangle themselves into Katya's platinum roots.  
Trixie is overwhelmed with emotions, but she pushes them to the side for now. Her lips demand more, sucking Katya’s bottom lip before gradually sliding in her tongue. Their tongues roll over one another lazily. Trixie breaks the kiss for a moment, leaving their foreheads resting against each other.   
“is this ok?” Trixie asks, breathing heavily.   
“absolutely.” Katya confirms. Trixie joins their lips again, The tip of her tongue dips slowly, in and out of Katya’s mouth and she lets out soft muffled moans in between kisses. Trixie grinds against Katya's thigh, desperate for some kind of pressure, but Katya wants to tease her first. They separate and Katya commands Trixie to remove her shirt. As soon as Trixie has thrown it to the floor, Katya sits back on her heels, taking in Trixie completely. She's wearing a simple lacy pink bralette, hugging her cleavage beautifully. Katya cups Trixie through the lace and she groans, tipping her head back.

“You're so sensitive” Katya states amusedly, pulling her hands away for a moment to tease Trixie. She whines, impatient, and reaches for Katya's wrists. She guides Katya's hands back to her chest and she recommences massaging Trixie's breasts through the fabric, her breath hitches at the gentle caresses. Katya continues until Trixie is practically begging for more.

Katya reaches around and expertly unhooks Trixie's bralette. She discards the garment, tossing it away from the bed. She returns her gaze to Trixie's chest. And suddenly becomes aware of the clothing discrepancy between the two. Katya isn't wearing a bra, so she discards her shirt swiftly and dives back in. She kisses around Trixie's sensitive tits. And Trixie continues to try and lift her hips up. Katya nips and licks around and finally decides to acknowledge the most sensitive spot on Trixie's tit. Trixie's breathing stutters as Katya ghosts her lips over Trixie's oversensitive bud. Katya drags her tongue over the spot again and this time Trixie lets out a low whine. Katya does it again and Trixie lifts her chest off the bed into Katya's touch, desperate for something more. Katya continues to tease her, repeating the move, sucking and licking on Trixie's other nipple. Until the girl is a whimpering mess. Katya decides to be kind and starts to nip and kiss down Trixie's body.   
She reaches the waistband of Trixie's shorts and she wastes no time sliding them off. Trixie assists by lifting her hips off the mattress and Katya discards the clothing. She carefully opens Trixie's legs and runs her hands gently over her inner thighs. She kisses over the area and purposely breathes heavily. Trixie whines at this, so sensitive from all the teasing that Katya's breath is enough to get her even more worked up.   
“You're so wet” Katya comments as she wets her lips. She starts unbearably slow, using her mouth just around Trixie’s inner thigh and labia. Trixie is whining in desperation, she persists in rolling her hips towards Katya's touch.  
Katya finally gives her more and licks a stripe along Trixie's pussy, parting the lips with her tongue. She flicks her tongue when she reaches Trixie's clit. Trixie shudders, bringing her hand down to tangle into Katya’s roots, keeping her in place. Katya takes this as a cue to keep going. Trixie tugs on her hair with every movement Katya makes. 

“You want more?” Katya breathes.   
“Yes- fuck!- obviously...” Trixie barely manages to stutter out.

She obeys and ducks down, she gently sucks on Trixie's clit. Katya's lips are swollen and shiny with moisture. Trixie jerks her hips up into Katya's face at the sudden contact. Katya persists, delving her tongue very gently into Trixie's hole. Trixie gasps, Katya's mouth is pleasantly warm and everything is so wet. Katya goes back and forth between tongueing Trixie's clit and licking at her entrance. Trixie starts playing with her own tits again, fumbling from how fucked-out she is. She toys with her nipples clumsily, gently squeezing them.  
“Don't stop” Trixie pants.

Katya glides a finger into Trixie's entrance, smoothly then adds another with very little resistance. Trixie's blood is rushing in her ears, and she feels faint, overwhelmed with pleasure. Katya pumps in and out of her as she continues lapping at Trixie. Trixie hooks her leg over Katya, and thrusts even harder into her mouth. 

‘Close, fuck!'' Trixie hisses through gritted teeth. Katya doesn't respond, just adds more pressure with her tongue. Trixie is moaning loudly, no longer biting back her reactions. Katya adds a third finger and Trixie arches, crying out louder than ever, static traveling through her entire body. Katya feels Trixie tighten around her fingers as she comes. Katya continues to fuck her through the orgasm and Trixie shudders from the shockwaves still travelling through her.

Katya crawls back up the bed, and Trixie re-establishes herself onto her elbows, almost sitting up. Very gently, Katya runs her digits along her jawline, tilting Trixie’s head so their eyes can meet. Trixie's eyelids flutter open and despite the dim lights Katya can see the shine in Trixie's glassy eyes. Trixie blinks away the moisture in her waterline, lips turned up in a soft smile. She’s racking her brain for something to say. It's dead quiet apart from the occasional sound of a car going by the street outside their window. Katya solves the problem for her by reconnecting their mouths. Katya's lips are puffy and slick with Trixie's wetness and her own saliva. Katya doesn't break their kiss as she moves to straddle Trixie's hips, leaning her weight into her. Trixie removes her elbows from underneath her so the pair can sit leaning further back. They continue making out lazily until Trixie feels she can not possibly be awake any longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yesss what this was all leading up to!! shameless smut babey!
> 
> thank you SO MUCH for reading
> 
> kudos and comments are VERY much appreciated do not be afraid to share feedback even if its very small :)


	6. sunday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the last one!! this one is probably the shortest so I'm thinking about adding another, let me know if you would like that!  
> thank you guys so much for reading!
> 
> any feedback at ALL is very much appreciated. thanks so much to those of you who have bookmarked, left kudos, or left comments. 💕💕
> 
> I do also have two other fics in the works right now so look out for those!! :)
> 
> Tumblr: trixiemateil

Trixie blinks away the dryness that's formed in the edges of her eyes. The corners of her mouth uplift at the warmth of Katya's embrace. Half her weight is on Trixie's side, one arm dangling across Trixie's waist. Katya is still dormant, breathing evenly into Trixie's neck.  
The honey beige of the hotel walls felt cozy. bathed in the early morning light. Stripes of gold cut through the blinds and ensconce onto the foot of the bed. The slices of sunlight shine onto the lower half of the pair's entangled legs, where the duvet had been kicked off at some point during the night. The hollow hum of the air conditioning unit was absent from the room, leaving them in a peaceful silence. 

“Hey Trix?” Katya begins, speaking softly as to not alarm the sleepy girl. Trixie’s movements are slow, she strains her neck to look down at Katya, resting on Trixie’s chest. 

“Yes?” 

“You're really pretty,” Katya confides, through a gentle giggle. Trixie smiles tenderly.

“Do you mean that in a friendly way? Or more-than-that way?” 

“More-than-that'' Katya confirms warmly. She inclines her head so she can capture Trixie’s lips in a lazy kiss. They move with each other, gently massaging their tongues together. Katya hums softly, winding her hands around Trixie. They stay embraced until an alarm sounds from Trixie’s phone, alerting them that they need to be at the airport soon.

The flight back is calmer than the one there, the stress of the competition relieved. The city's weather was the same as it had been when they left. There's a gentle misting rain that slightly dampens their hair while they wait for a taxi. The airport's elevated position allowed for them to see the blinking lights of the entire city. Apartment buildings sparkled, into the deep blue afternoon sky. Stars were just starting to appear, later that day there would be many, but as they were waiting only the brightest ones were visible.  
The girls clamber into a taxi that has pulled up to the curb, and settle into the sleek leather backseat. The vehicle had a familiar damp heat to it, but the humidity was a welcome contrast to the chilling rain from outside. Once Trixie and Katya are established in their seats the driver commences steering. Trixie relaxes, reclining into the cushiony car. She reaches out for Katya's hand and entangles their fingers. Katya grasps Trixie’s palm loosely as she strokes the pad of her thumb over Trixie’s knuckles.

“Hey Katya?” Trixie whispers, smiling softly.

“Yes?” 

“We won”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANKS FOR READING!!!!  
> I know this last one was short so please let me know if you guys want it to be longer/want another chapter.
> 
> any feedback at ALL is very much appreciated. thanks so much to those of you who have bookmarked, left kudos, or left comments.
> 
> I do also have two other fics in the works right now so keep an eye out!
> 
> tumblr: trixiemateil

**Author's Note:**

> Hi thanks for reading!!! Any feedback at all is very much appreciated! My tumblr is trixiemateil
> 
> here is the google doc with all the cheer terminology https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wz13LpOmuaqQr1K86hRGK2YWmH9ozn-tuyFA2qOGWl0/edit let me know if you have any questions!! 💕


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